Seeking Disclosure

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Comptroller general and Government Accountability Office chief David Walker warned federal agencies that, while they "have the right to disseminate information about their policies and activities, agencies may not use appropriated [public] funds to produce or distribute prepackaged news stories intended to be viewed by television audiences that conceal or do not clearly identify ... that the agency was the source of those materials." Video news releases "can be utilized ... so long as there is clear disclosure." In the past two years, the GAO found VNRs from the Department of Health and Human Services and the Office of National Drug Control Policy to violate the ban on covert government propaganda.